Patty Wooten presents ... 
Gilda's Club
From Journal of Nursing Jocularity, Winter 1995, 5(4), pp 46-47.Gilda Radner could always make people laugh.
As Roseanne Rosannadanna on Saturday Night Live, she would twist and distort reality to reveal the comic potential of current events and issues. Gilda Radner died of ovarian cancer in 1989. Her book, It's Always Something, chronicled her struggles, hopes, frustrations, and (most of all) her ability to find the humorous parts of her illness. As she noted, "Cancer is probably the most unfunny thing in the world ... but, I'm a comedienne, and even cancer couldn't stop me from seeing the humor in what I went through."
Gilda had a dream, a dream of a center -- a community where cancer patients, their families, and their friends could come to receive support, education, and an opportunity to share their experience with others. In June 1995, Gilda's Club opened its doors near Greenwich Village in New York City. Joanna Bull, MFCC, has helped Gilda's dream become a reality. I talked with Joanna about this.
Patty Wooten:
Joanna, tell us about your relationship with Gilda.
Joanna Bull:
I was Gilda's therapist at the Wellness Community in Santa Monica, California. For Gilda, humor was as natural as breathing. She was the archetypal clown, always able to find the funny side of any situation. As her therapist, this was sometimes difficult for me because she would often use it to avoid talking about deeper issues such as pain, loss of libido, altered image and fear of death. But I've learned through my years of working with cancer patients, that they all develops their own styles of coping with illness and I try to accept this. Gilda used humor to avoid looking directly at the frightening, sometimes overwhelming aspects of her illness.
PW: How did the idea for Gilda's Club come about?
JB: Gilda and her husband Gene Wilder had homes in both Bel Air, California, and in Stamford, Connecticut. She was upset that a support community like the Wellness Community didn't exist on the east coast, and asked Gene and me to promise to create one after she got well. Unfortunately, she didn't get well and after her death, I moved to New York to begin fund raising and networking to make her dream come true. We found a wonderful building, over 12,000 square feet, and were able to purchase this with many gifts and donations. We also received grants from Ortho Biotech Inc. (a pharmaceutical company) and the Heidi Paoli Foundation. We completed the renovation with donations of carpeting, electrical supplies, furniture, etcetera from local merchants.
PW: And what will happen here at Gilda's Club?
JB: Our program will target three areas: networking, education and social. Networking groups will provide opportunities for patients to share and receive inspiration from each other. Lectures and workshops will offer information about the treatment and management of cancer or about any topic of interest to the members. Activities such as pot lucks, joke fests and dances will encourage social involvement. Our goal is to provide members and their families comfort, support and skills to live with cancer.
PW: Are you going to be doing any research or measurement of the effectiveness of your program, like symptom management or quality of life improvement?
JB: Well, we really don't want to intrude into people's lives. Perhaps, after they have their initial personal interviews to determine how they want to use the program, we may give them the option to have some personal testing and then repeat these tests after three months, six months and a year.
PW: How does the philosophy of Gilda's Club compare to Gerald Jampolsky's Center for Attitudinal Healing in Tiburon?
JB: My understanding is that Jampolsky's program is based on The Course in Miracles. What we're going to do, without bringing in religion, priests, pastors, or rabbis; is give people an opportunity to share how spirituality works for them. For so many people, spirituality is such an important part of how they handle their world, whether ill or well. We'd be putting our heads in the sand if we didn't give people the opportunity to get together and share their collective wisdom without any judgment or expectations.
PW: Are there plans for Gilda's Clubs beyond the New York location?
JB: Yes, we already have Gilda's Clubs in Detroit, Cleveland, and southern Florida. Our New York City location will be the training center for these and other clubs. Therapists, nurses, social workers and others will come to this center to receive the training to establish clubs in their own communities. We also hope to someday establish a "Gilda's Annex" in hospitals, so that even when patients are hospitalized, they can continue to receive the support and nurturing they've found helpful in Gilda's clubs.
PW: Joanna, you've helped make Gilda's dream a reality and I'm sure the service that Gilda's Club provides will help thousands of cancer patients and their families to learn how to live with cancer.
Readings and Resources
Benjamin, H. (1987). From Victim to Victor. New York, NY: Dell Pub.
Radner, G. (1989). It's Always Something. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
Gilda's Club, 195 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014, .
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This article was originally published in "Jest for the Health of It", a regular feature in the Journal of Nursing Jocularity.
Feature columnist Patty Wooten, BSN, is also a past President of the American Association for Therapeutic Humor, author of two books related to humor, and a national speaker presenting on the benefits of humor.
